Organising against precarious work: the law, labour and power

The Global Labour University will host Carin Runciman from Casual Workers Advice Office and the University of Johannesburg to present this talk.

In 2015 the Labour Relations Act was amended to curtail the use of contract labour to work of a ‘genuinely temporary nature' and ensure that labour broker workers become permanent after a period of three months. These new rights have been largely ignored by the traditional labour movement and in this absence community advice offices have begun to fill the gap. This presentation will document the work of the CWAO and the Simunye Workers Forum based in Germiston, Gauteng. The new rights have provided the impetus for precarious workers to organise and since 2015, CWAO has assisted over 10 000 workers to become permanent. The discussion will explore how workers have organised and what this may mean for the future of the labour movement.